Eddies in Marine Science

1. Front Matter

   Pages I-XXV

   PDF

2. Introduction

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

      PDF

   2. Overview and Summary of Eddy Science

      • A. R. Robinson

      Pages 3-15

3. Regional Kinematics, Dynamics, and Statistics

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 17-17

      PDF

   2. Gulf Stream Rings

      • P. L. Richardson

      Pages 19-45

   3. Western North Atlantic Interior

      • C. Wunsch

      Pages 46-65

   4. The Western North Atlantic - A Lagrangian Viewpoint

      • H. T. Rossby, S. C. Riser, A. J. Mariano

      Pages 66-91

   5. The Local Dynamics of Eddies in the Western North Atlantic

      • J. C. McWilliams, E. D. Brown, H. L. Bryden, C. C. Ebbesmeyer, B. A. Elliott, R. H. Heinmiller et al.

      Pages 92-113

   6. Gulf Stream Variability

      • D. R. Watts

      Pages 114-144

   7. The Northeast Atlantic Ocean

      • W. J. Gould

      Pages 145-157

   8. Eddy Structure of the North Pacific Ocean

      • R. L. Bernstein

      Pages 158-166

   9. Subpolar Gyres and the Arctic Ocean

      • G. T. Needler

      Pages 167-180

   10. Tropical and Equatorial Regions

       • G. Siedler

       Pages 181-199

   11. Eddies in the Indian Ocean

       • J. C. Swallow

       Pages 200-218

   12. The South Pacific Including the East Australian Current

       • A. F. Bennett

       Pages 219-244

   13. Eddies in the Southern Indian Ocean and Agulhas Current

       • M. L. Gründlingh

       Pages 245-264

   14. The Southern Ocean

       • H. L. Bryden

       Pages 265-277

   15. Global Summaries and Intercomparisons: Flow Statistics from Long-Term Current Meter Moorings

       • R. R. Dickson

       Pages 278-353

   16. Global Summary: Review of Eddy Phenomena as Expressed in Temperature Measurements

       • W. J. Emery

       Pages 354-375

4. Models

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 377-377

      PDF

It is now well known that the mid-ocean flow is almost everywhere domi­ nated by so-called synoptic or meso-scale eddies, rotating about nearly vertical axes and extending throughout the water column. A typical mid­ ocean horizontal scale is 100 km and a time scale is 100 days: these meso­ scale eddies have swirl speeds of order 10 cm s -1 which are usually con­ siderably greater than the long-term average flow. Many types of eddies with somewhat different scales and characteristics have been identified. The existence of such eddies was suspected by navigators more than a century ago and confirmed by the world of C. O'D. Iselin and V. B. Stock­ man in the 1930's. Measurements from RIV Aries in 1959/60, using the then newly developed neutrally buoyant floats, indicated the main char­ acteristics of the eddies in the deep ocean of the NW Atlantic while a se­ ries of Soviet moored current-meter arrays culminated, in POLYGON- 1970, in the explicit mapping of an energetic anticyclonic eddy in the tropical NE Atlantic. In 1973 a large collaborative (mainly U. S. , U. K. ) program, MODE-I, produced synoptic charts for an area of the NW At­ lantic and confirmed the existence of an open ocean eddy field and es­ tablished its characteristics. Meso-scale eddies are now known to be of interest and importance to marine chemists and biologists as well as to physical oceanographers and meteorologists.

• Arctic Ocean
• Atlantic Ocean
• Coast
• Indian Ocean
• Meeresströmung
• Pacific Ocean
• Southern Ocean
• Wirbel
• marine
• marine science
• ocean
• plankton
• water

• Division of Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA

  Allan R. Robinson

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